How to Rap

In Hip Hop Honey or Video Ho: African American Preadolescents’ Understanding of Female Sexual Scripts in Hip Hop Culture, authors Dionne Stephens and April Few explore how hip hop created black female sexual scripts that reinforce stereotypes about young black women. Stephens and Few describe how from hip hop emerged “the Diva, Gold Digger, Freak, Dyke, Gangster Bitch, Sister Savior, Earth Mother, and Baby Mama unique sexual scripts” (Stephens, Few 51). The Diva refers to a black…

Released on July 1, 1991, the single Mind Playing Tricks On Me by the Geto Boys delved into the mental stress of gangsta and drug addict lifestyles, and addressed how one reaffirmed their existence. During this period, the group consisted of Willie D, Scarface, and Bushwick Bill. They acknowledged their issues, such as coping, vulnerability, and reasons for living. Through this song, one is able to deduce that the lyrics and beat complement one another, and the first few verses set the tone of…

Every kid when they were little wanted to become a pop star, rock star, movie star, or sports player. Not every kid starts out listening to hip-hop or hardcore rap. Not every parent wants their kids to know about SOME struggles expressed by the hip-hop culture or the lifestyle of a different culture. It is perceived that rap is for thugs and bad people, but once Iggy Azalea come into it or Ryan Maclemore got into it, it become more of an art. There is a fine line of racism in everything that…

would like to research the facts, truth and also the lies about the behavioral effects hip-hop brings. I am targeting black listeners of hip-hop of all ages. In an article “How Hip Hop Holds Blacks Back”, it discussed the negative behaviors and damaging lyrics that hip-hop inserts into the black community. “For Simmons, gangsta raps teach listeners something about the lives of the people who create them and remind them that these people exist.” (John McWhorter, 2003) In my opinion, hip-hop has…

Music is the international medium that can link both mind and soul. From sophisticated, well drawn out classical music, to drums and rocks in Aboriginal tribes in Africa, music is a natural and seemingly God-given talent we all possess. “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent,” it is supernatural yet so uniquely human simultaneously (Hugo). Music elicits response; one main response it draws out is in-depth analysis. As popular as music is, music…

The Black Eyed Peas, a hip-hop group combining various styles of music including soul, funk, noise music, and rap, first formed in 1995 based out of Los Angeles (Grove Music Online). Their group includes four members, will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo, and eventually Fergie, all with unique ethnicities, which contributes to the diversity heard in their music. Their song, “Where is the Love?” serves as a commentary on the problems faced by many throughout the world. The first musical event happens from…

He uses symbolism to create an image of inter-city child surrounded by hardships and concrete, yet a flower blossoming from his surroundings. This is also an idiom meaning something that came from nothing. By staying focused on his dream he learned how to take in everything around him, and use it his advantage; resulting in his success and way out of the…

I disagree against this statement is because not only “black ghetto people” write hip hop music. There are many cultures that write and like to sing hip hop music. For example, in the film they showed us different kind of people who write hip hop/ rap, but it’s not only blacks. American, French, and Chinese etc. write hip hop too. You don’t have to be a specific race to write and listen hip hop. Only because people say that only hip hop is another name for “black ghetto music” doesn’t mean it’s…

on society today. From many articles that I’ve read such as Brent Staples ¨How Hip Hop Music Lost Its Way and Betrayed Its Fans¨ he stated that ¨The most poisonous one defines middle-class normalcy and achievement as "white," while embracing violence, illiteracy and drug dealing as "authentically" black. This fiction rears its head from time to time in films and literature. But it finds its most virulent expression in rap music, which started out with a broad palette of themes but has…

Mainstream rap and hip-hop portrays a distinct style and theme, which, to me, seems to be mostly centered on commercialism. The stereotype that exists for hip-hop exists because the mainstream hip-hop does fit into the mold that some of us talked about during the first discussion. Artists promote lifestyles that are unattainable for the majority, probably all, of their listeners. This focus on commercialism, always having the newest, best, and brightest editions of clothing, electronics, or cars…